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About Me

All of the projects that I did during the class were new and useful skills for me to learn but my favorite project was the photo collage project because I feel that the skills I learned during the photo collage project will be the most applicable for me in the future in various classes I will take. Being able to change pictures and make different designs the way that I want them will allow me to make projects for future classes that will be more applicable to the subject I am presenting on. Being able to make a video will also be useful when making projects for other classes and as I move through life for various personal entertainment and fun projects. After getting my degree I will be serving in the military for 4 years and then either staying in the military or applying for an investigatory job. I had already planned on what wanted my career to be prior to taking this class but I did find that this class helped me to become more creative on my ideas and since I did many projects based my experiences so far in ROTC I was apply to apply m desired career field into the class. I cannot think of a skill that I would have wanted to learn in the class because I don’t know much about the communication field as a whole. All the websites that I used to find materials for my projects were websites recommended by the class; I found creative commons to be especially useful. There were a few projects in which I wasn’t sure what exactly the project was supposed to look like, in some cases this helped me to be more creative but in other cases I felt that I just had no idea where to go with the project. I also thought that grading in the class could be difficult because what one person prefers a project to look like could be different than another’s so a good project could be subjective. There were some times I would change a project because of something that my peers had recommended but then I got marked down for that change on the final project. I learned a lot of new technical skills during this class and enjoyed being able to use my own ideas and resources to make the projects.

I decided to make my video project about how to make a duct tape flower because I enjoy all of the fun and different crafts that you can make with duct tape and decided that flowers would be the best tutorial to do in order to make the video stay within the time limits. I began by videotaping an introduction of myself using my lap top camera and stating my name, what I am doing and why I am doing this video project. I then recorded a video of myself making the duct tape flower. After my rough draft I filmed another video because a common comment from my classmates was that my hands went off screen a couple of times. When I was finished with these two videos I made a video to be the hook at the begging by zooming in close to the center of the flower and then zooming out until the whole flower was visible. When putting the video together I began with the hook video of the flower and added music from the creative commons website. I then had the hook video cross dissolve into the video of my introducing the project and faded the music so that the introduction and tutorial would be audible with the music quietly in the background. I left the music at this low level until I had finished the audio part of the tutorial. I turned up the music and sped up the motion of my hands while I completed the flower. The tutorial I had originally recorded was about six minutes so I had to speed the time up on the parts I wasn’t talking for and slow the video back down for the conclusion. At the end I dipped to black to a title screen that says thank you and finally faded the thank you slide into a dip to black again to conclude the video.

Video Script:

I am going to open with a close up on a premade duct tape flower and then zoom out till the whole flower is visible. There will also be music playing at the start of the video and as the first video cross dissolves into the video of me introducing the project then the music will fade to a lower level. Following the introduction clip there will be a transition into my tutorial on how to make the duct tape flower. After the audible part of the tutorial is finished the video will speed up until the flower is completed. The video will then return to normal speed for me to conclude the video, then the video will dissolve to a title screen and back to black. Throughout the entire video there will be music playing in the background of the video.

I decided to make my video project about how to make a duct tape flower because I enjoy all of the fun and different crafts that you can make with duct tape and flowers would be the best tutorial to do in order to make the video stay within the time limits. I began by videotaping an introduction of myself using my lap top camera and stating my name, what I am doing and why I am doing this project. I then recorded a video of myself making the duct tape flower. When I was finished with these two videos I made a video to be the hook at the begging by zooming in close to the center of the flower and then zooming out until the whole flower was visible. When putting the video together I began with the hook video of the flower and added music from the creative commons website. I then had the hook video cross dissolve into the video of my introducing the project and faded the music so that the introduction and tutorial would be audible. I left the music at this low level for the remainder of the video. I then dipped to white in order to add the video of my actual tutorial. The tutorial I had originally recorded was about six minutes so I needed to pick only the essentials of the video to put into my finally project. I cut what I thought was the most important part of the tutorial and added it into my project. I then used the film dissolve transition in order to add the short video of what the end result of the flower should look like. At the end I dipped to black to a title screen that says thank you and finally faded the thank you slide into a dip to black again to conclude the video.

Video Script:

I am going to open with a close up on a premade duct tape flower and then zoom out till the whole flower is visible. There will also be music playing at the start of the video and as the first video cross dissolves into the video of me introducing the project then the music will fade to a lower level. Following the introduction clip there will be a transition into my tutorial on how to make the duct tape flower. After the tutorial there is a quick clip of me showing what the flower should look like when you have finished and then a fade out to a thank you title. Throughout the entire video there will be music playing in the background of the video.

I chose to make my audio story about a subject that I have experience in and am passionate about. I interviewed two of my fellow midshipmen in order to create this audio story about Naval ROTC. The two talked about their experiences thus far in the program, why they joined and what they have learned during their time in the program as my raw footage for the story. I started by cutting up their segments into parts that I thought I might want to add to my story. I then refined the segments into parts that I thought would actually go smoothly together. I found that one of the interviewees had given me a lot more to work with than the other but still tried to alternate information between the two. I also found that one of them had talked quieter so I raised the volume on all of his segments in order to fit the others. I then arranged the segments into an order that seemed to flow the best and make the most sense as a whole. I then added fades to try and make the transitions between voices flow more smoothly and seem more natural. After I had done what I could to make the segments of the other to ROTC midshipmen fit together in a systematic way I then recorded a short segment of myself to be the introduction to the clip. I tried to make an intro that could fit all of the topics discussed during my clips, seeing how there was a wide variety of topics throughout the story that I had created because of the difference in people interviewed. I then added the introduction clip to the begging of the story and faded it in and out. In addition I went through and cut any ums… or unnecessary pauses where the interviewees were thinking. When revising my draft to make the final story I first edited the intro so that it introduced the interviewees as Naval ROTC students and did not seem sudden at the begging and the end. I then heightened the more quite persons volume even more to try and match it with the others volume and tone. I then added small pauses in between the switching of between speakers.

I chose to do my audio story project on my experiences, and my fellow midshipmen’s experiences in the Naval ROTC program because the program is something that I am passionate about and know a lot about. I had two of my Naval ROTC friends talk about their experiences in ROTC, why they joined and what they have learned during their time in the program and used that as my raw footage for the audio story. I started by cutting up their segments into parts that I thought I might want to add to my story. I then refined the segments into parts that I thought would actually go smoothly together. I found that one of the interviewees had given me a lot more to work with than the other but still tried to alternate information between the two. I also found that one of them had talked quieter so I raised the volume on all of his segments in order to fit the others. I then arranged the segments into an order that seemed to flow the best and make the most sense as a whole. I then added fades to try and make the transitions between voices flow more smoothly and seem more natural. After I had done what I could to make the segments of the other to ROTC midshipmen fit together in a systematic way I then recorded a short segment of myself to be the introduction to the clip. I tried to make an intro that could fit all of the topics discussed during my clips, seeing how there was a wide variety of topics throughout the story that I had created because of the difference in people interviewed. I then added the introduction clip to the begging of the story and faded it in and out. Finally I went back and checked for an ums… or unnecessary pauses in the story.

When I first started this project I was unsure what I wanted to make my logo look like but when I thought about my theme for the blog, about me, I decided that something to do with my family would be suitable. I chose to make a tree with my last name on it, representing my family tree, which could be used with any family business. The sketch on the left was my original idea for the logo, the picture in the middle was my draft created with adobe illustrator and the picture on the far right is my revised final draft of the logo. I created the leaves on the tree using the ellipse tool and intersecting the trees in a tree like manner. I erased the lines between the different ellipses by using the pathfinder tool to unite the image to one image. I created the tree trunks and branches using the rectangle tool, copy and pasting the rectangles and adjusting them using the rotatory tool to where I wanted them to be in order to represent branches. I again used the pathfinder and unite tools to make the trunk and branches one image. I chose colors for both images that were close to what I wanted and then used the gradient tool to give a lighting effect to the image. In my draft I used a linear gradient but upon revision looking at suggestions I decided to make the gradient radial to outline the title and give the tree a glowing effect. I tried to find a good balance between the colors to unite the images to one logo. I then added my last name, Davis, using the type tool and changing the font to AR darling and the font to 72. My original draft had my name as a line but on the revision I chose to make my name an arch to add visual effects. I then added a shadow effect to the name to blend it into the picture in a more visually appealing way; I later changed it to a glow effect to signify that the name is key to the logo and to make it easier to read. I then centered the name to the tree and trunk. On revision I curved the trunk using the pin to create rounded triangles which I placed on corners and combined with the image using the same method as with the branches. I then added roots to the image using the pen tool to form the image and the eraser tool to form them to a shape that would better fit the logo. Roots are key to a tree and I felt that to show the strength of the tree representing my family they should be added to the logo. I attached the roots the same way as I have previously done with the branches.